“I know where I’m going!” That plaintive whine, uttered by Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) as he charges over a golf course (and golfer) in a stretch limo, is not a reassuring opening for a beleaguered show.
Writers Neil Gaiman (author of the novel upon which American Gods is based) and Jesse Alexander know that, and they throw in a few more winks at worried viewers, anticipating the fears that follow a troubled production. “We can’t move without preparation, off balance and unready,” Mr. World (Crispin Glover) frets, sending his sneering underling off to “find Media”—by which he means a new vision of a character originated by Gillian Anderson, who left the series in the wake of the departure of creators and showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.
Those winks seem less lighthearted when we remember that Alexander was also sidelined as showrunner, in a muddled move that one source described as “fired but not fired.” Like Wednesday’s campaign to win back worshippers and regain his power, American Gods has been hit by setback after setback, and those difficulties show up in the very visible seams of this episode as it tries to stitch together what was with what will be.
But this isn’t a review of the production process. It’s a review of the show, episode by episode. So let’s plow into “House On The Rock,” the season premiere, as lustily as the show does—or as lustily as the show will allow.
It seemed risky to end the first season before our travelers even made it to The House On The Rock. But it’s a risk (and a budget-driven necessity) that pays off reasonably well in the premiere. The House On The Rock—that strange roadside attraction, that oddity of American tourism—lends its substantive mystique to this first episode as no fictional site could, at a time when the show badly needs both mystique and substance.
Wednesday (Ian McShane)—now revealed as Odin—tells Shadow, “over the centuries, people in other places felt calls to places of power. They knew there was an energy there, a focus point, a channel, a window to the imminent.” In places like The House On The Rock, Wednesday explains, humans cobble together rickety monuments to something powerful but ineffable. The House On The Rock, says this ancient god, is “a place where people come to look, play, and wonder.”
That’s also what a TV show can be, if it’s well-crafted—or even if it’s half-baked but utterly, unhesitatingly itself. The first season of American Gods was flawed but passionate, an potent brew of intense visuals, insightful portrayals, cheerfully unlikeable characters, and not-quite-cogent stories told with irresistible verve. It was a rough draught but a heady cocktail. Fuller and Green managed to capture the spirit of Gaiman’s novel without following its plot to the letter, and while expanding the arcs of many of the book’s minor characters.
It’s almost as if the show’s creators heard and heeded in 2017 the advice Mr. Nancy gives in tonight’s second-season premiere: “If you follow the signs, you never have any motherfucking fun!” This season promises to focus more on plot and hew closer to the book, but the premiere borrows its visuals from the site it visits instead of intoxicating us with the show’s unique aesthetic charms and its cast’s tour-de-force performances.
Of those performances, the most luminous, most delicate, was Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya. That brilliance is briefly revisited against the gleaming backdrop of The House On The Rock, only to see Zorya struck down before episode’s end. As logical as Zorya Vechernyaya’s death is for both the narrative and the production, I will miss Leachman’s keen portrayal and the trenchant wit that cloaked Zorya’s vulnerability. Laura and Mad Sweeney might be the heart of the show, but cutting down Zorya Vechernyaya feels like cutting out the heart of this loosely assembled company of gods.
Even here, in the most gutting scene of the premiere, it’s hard to ignore the show’s countless production concerns intruding into the story. (Insuring an actor for the length of a series grows more expensive with every presumed risk factor, including age.) But as it takes away Zorya Vechernyaya (and who knows, in a show populated by forsaken gods and a walking corpse, whether she will return in some form), “House On The Rock” delivers a bevy of new old gods. One of these gods is Mama-Ji (Sakina Jaffrey), by day a chambermaid in the Hotel America, but now a god of war willing to stand up to Odin.
It also brings back Bilquis (Yetide Badaki). Entering Odin’s gathering without invitation, Bilquis is confident, calm, and uncowed by his snub. Stepping forward, she reminds Odin, “I was old in the desert before they sacrificed the first horse to you,” and insists upon being heard “unless you are afraid.” Bilquis’ advice, to adopt the tools of the new gods and adapt to changing times, to use the power of connection to convert new congregations, is a clever update on the novel, which was written before the worldwide explosion of social media.
Together, the old gods mount the forbidden carousel and ride it, spinning with dizzying speed, into the divine landscape of Odin’s memories. “We’re just backstage,” Bilquis tells Shadow.
I can’t tell yet if this season has any of season one’s unreliable but undeniable power, but this scene is beautiful, even breathtaking. It takes most of its power from the riotous background of its setting and the rest from these actors, able to breathe power into words that read fluidly on the page but prove a challenge to hear, and probably to speak with conviction. These speeches, lifted almost verbatim from Neil Gaiman’s novel, could be ponderous and stilted, too heavy for an actor’s voice. But these actors—especially Ian McShane and Orlando Jones—speak them with the certainty of gods… and not gods down on their luck, either. If there is an animating power to this episode, it is split between the setting and the actors. (That’s not a slight to Alexander and Gaiman, who had to be equally confident their actors could carry the weight of these lines.)
Like Wednesday’s entourage driving from Kentucky to Wisconsin, “House On The Rock” covers a lot of ground, introducing new characters, explaining the absence of old ones, and refreshing the viewer’s memory of the relationships pulling these people (and gods) in too many directions at once. But much of this exposition feels as mechanical as the creaky, blood-red sequence of Selina delivering Shadow’s (Ricky Whittle) fortune. And some of it feels as blank as Laura Moon’s (Emily Browning) fortune.
Even the relationship between these two, previously enlivened by silent understanding and sorrow shared, feels forced. They barely interact until she asks him about Odin, and even then he wavers. “I don’t know what I believe in,” Shadow tells the dead wife who follows him across a continent. “I guess… I don’t know. I guess I believe in him. I want to believe in you.” Despite the shaky storytelling of the first season and the uncertainty surrounding the second, I want to believe in American Gods. I hope it will let me.
If American Gods is to succeed in its second (and possible third) season, it needs to transcend the temptation to wink about its own woes. It needs to recapture the magic that inhabited even its clumsiest stories. It needs to stop asking, as Wednesday asks his companions, whether we will come backstage. If American Gods is to thrive in the inhospitable land that its own troubles have made for it, the writers must heed the advice Bilquis offers her fellow gods: “Evolve or die.”
Stray observations
- The miniature map of the country, trains crawling across it like inchworms, massive landmarks scaled down, like the St. Louis arch reduced to a tiny hoop of metal, as Mr. Wednesday’s car sweeps from state to state, is a charming way to note their progress.
- Mad Sweeney talks the Jinn into giving Laura Moon a coin for her fortune, when Mad Sweeney of all people should know the dangers of giving that corpse more coins.
- In a detail designed to deceive readers of Gaiman’s novel, Bilquis calls for her car while Wednesday’s celebration is still in full swing, but sidesteps the fate the novel spells out… so far.
- “It’s my bloody luck you’re feedin’ on, dead wife.” I am never going to get tired of Mad Sweeney taking it on the chin, or taking a burning cigarette butt to the throat.
- “I do not grant wishes.” SALIM AND THE JINN, THE JINN AND SALIM! Spinoff series, anyone?
- I am infuriated by the laziness that results in the exchange between Bilquis and the Jinn being captioned as “[foreign language]” instead of the words they speak.
153 Comments
So is Kristen Chynoweth definitely not in this season? Cause that’d be too bad. What about Anubis and Thoth from last season? That guy had such a great voice, but I didn’t see either of them this episode.Also, who was the Japanese looking goddess in the trippy scene? Was it Amaterasu, and is she still alive after all that?
No, Chenoweth is out for good, as is Anderson. Anubis and Thoth will be back, no doubt.The Japanese actress is credited as Ame-Nu Uzume, the Shinto goddess of dawn, mirth, and revelry.
Damn, both of them were excellent.Ah yeah, Uzume, you don’t see her given much attention. So is she still in the show or was she whacked?
Don’t remember her being a character in the book ( a speaking character, at least )
I thought at first she was the Chinese goddess, Kwan Yin, but as she is the goddess of mercy and compassion, she would not be a fit for Odin’s war.
I likes the reference to Anansai’s son who is the protagonist to the spinoff book Anansai Boys.
I believe there was some noise at some point about giving them a TV Show or Movie.
A while ago I heard it was the plan to incorporate the novel into the show, which made sense if they were expanding it beyond the 2 seasons the book could cover without severely overstuffing things. Since then showrunning duties have changed hands multiple times so who knows. Good book though.
Superior to American Gods in my opinion. A much breezier read too. I read it aloud for my gf at the time.
A really fun read.
yesss. i loved that novel. maybe he will appear in American Gods? to bond with Shadow Moon perhaps… !
That’s from the book. I’ve never been sure if the son who’s “stupid as a man who bought his stupid at a two-for-one sale” is meant to be Spider or Fat Charlie. It could apply to either one at different points.
I read in another review that it’s gotten a libido-ectomy (their words) this season… which is sad cause they used sexuality so beautifully with Salim/Jinn and Bilquis. Was always treated with frankness and care, as opposed to other cable shows.On a more shallow side, why have Ricky Whittle sign a nudity waiver and not use it? Like come on.
To be fair, it seems like everyone only got the first three episodes so maybe later.
I for one will not miss that shit.
On a more shallow side, why have Ricky Whittle sign a nudity waiver and not use it? Like come on.
I believe it’s possible to find footage of Ricky Whittle naked, if you’re that keen.
To quote Darth Vader “impressive, most impressive”.
I’m not even into male genitalia, but I may need to look that up.
Perhaps, because of The Deus Ex-Machina of this show is residing inside his pants. That’s why there is no reveal yet.Having said that, Ricky Whittle is one handsome devil. But he has the charisma of Charlie Brown.
Maybe as Shadow, but he is a charmer in person.
I liked it just fine. Everyone seems to be trying really hard to cut this season no slack whatsoever, like let’s make it jump through all our hoops, but come on people let’s get over ourselves. It’s a damn fine bit of work on so many levels. You got something better to watch?
This episode did feel kind of off but I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.Also unless I’ve missed something, There’s only three (actual) New Gods right? Because they keep talking about them like there’s more of them. Compared to the Old Gods who seem to be many.
In the book there are more. There are “The Spooks”, gods who look like the Men in Black and represent conspiracy theories and “The Intangibles” who represent the powers that control the stock markets.
I knew about that but I didn’t think they were supposed to be gods.
Ah. Personally, I always found it odd that everything from local news to movie stars was lumped in with Media. It just seemed to me that someone like Marilyn Monroe would be her own god.
I guess it depends on the definition of worship really. The thing that always got me that there wasn’t a Gun God in the books.
I mean, there were as many Jesus’s as Christian sects, so…por que no los dos, si?
According to what I’d read, Vulcan came about after the book while Neil was traveling through Alabama. A steel town had erected a statue to Vulcan, and he wanted to add it.I kind of liked the episode but was very confused about Wednesday’s need for a sword (which has not been spoken of or hinted at, since – and a confrontation with Mr. World seems to suggest the possibility that he may wish to use it).
not sure if that betrays a certain British sensibility on the part of the author but it did seem like an odd gap…my guess was that the various gods of war divvied that worship up between them in the print version but it was one of the things I thought the show did well with…
Which Season One covered by introducing the new-and-improved Vulcan, an Old God seduced by the New to be their God of Firepower. I hope they can bring back Corbin Bernsen — surely Americans’ belief in guns is strong enough to overcome a simple decapitation/incineration, right?
In the show, not the books.
I have a theory that what we saw was not what it seemed. Vulcan gets decapitated and his body falls into the molten metal that’s going to be turned into a bunch of bullets. I think (SPOILERS from the book) that when the final battle happens, the New Gods will be using these bullets, and every one that kills and Old God will feed right back into Vulcan and bring him back to life. Basically, he’s in on the same con as Wednesday and Loki; his death is just a prelude to the sham battle bringing him back stronger than ever.
The sniper may have been using exactly those bullets, considering their effect.
I think Media is kid of like the head of a pantheon. In the book, it mentions other New Gods at Rock City who look like newsreaders and celebrities. So I think there are gods of news and movies, but they’re all subservient to Media.
There also a New God who appears briefly that Shadow thinks must be a drug of some kind.
in this episode we had Mr World, Technical Boy, and they talked about New Media… and a character Amazon X-Ray calls ‘the Caretaker’ but that’s not a God right?
I enjoyed the episode, I dn’t understand why anyone would be upset with it.
No he was just the dude looking after Black Briar.
We also saw, if briefly, Mr. Town, who was the hitman (and the receiver of Mr. World’s message). He’s played by Dean Winters, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be back in a larger capacity.
thanks! i didnt remember him even though we saw him before and i read the novel. what exactly is he representing? he is so meh to me so i thought he was something like a non-deity assistant to mr world
Pretty much. He’s one of the “Spooks”, which are entities that work for Mr. World: Town, Road, Wood and Stone. I guess, they reference the basic elements of pre-technological inter-communication?
ok…so he is kind of connected to deity but much much lesser than Mr World, that makes sense to me now 🙂
Mayhem already IS a New God.
The Google results for a search on season 2 reviews are pretty damning headlines (“a Cosmic mess” and “good Lord I’m bored), so maybe my expectations were so sunk I was kind of surprised? I am cautiously okay so far. The excuse for Easter apparently undoing crop blight and dropping out of the war was pretty lame, but the rest seemed okay.
I thought it was fine. Ian can do no wrong in my book. Plus, he’s playing Odin, so this is just a must watch for me. I’m curious whch version of Odin they’ll be using. I sure hope it’s the asshole version.
It definitely lacked the visual style Fuller brought, but we’ll see if they can make it work. Worst case I’ll get my Gaiman fix with Good Omens on Amazon.
That excuse was beyond lame and I actually couldn’t believe they put a line like that in.
I missed the excuse. What was it?
Something about running over rabbits?
I liked that, and it gave us one of my favourite lines: “Running over rabbits in your car all over the place like some rabbit racist.”
More or less the same here. It started out a bit rock, but I thought it worked well for the most part. Then again I’m under the impression that this episode may’ve been partially held over from the previous season; apparently 9 episodes were planned, but only 8 filmed due to Fuller exceeding the budget and this one felt like its ending made more sense as a season finale than the actual finale last year.
Considering what this show had to fight its way back from; this was an understandable first effort and I’m not gonna write it off because of overhead circumstances that couldn’t be helped. American Gods just needs to find it’s footing again… it deserves a chance to and I’m confident that it will. The cast mesh so well and Jones, McShane and Stomare add the right doses of charisma imo. I maintain that I’m very glad this show made its way back.
Folks I know say it lost all its charm and is “playing it safe” now, which defeats the show’s point.
Starz has a history of screwing up good shows and being unable to capitalize on good tv shows. It’s surprising the successful shows they have had have done so well.
SALIM AND THE JINN, THE JINN AND SALIM! Spinoff series, anyone?I don’t really know which network would be able to run the show i want from those two. It would be, ermm… Porn, basically. It would be porn. ( sighs in shame ) I’m a dirty man.
Logo. Or is that too obvious a choice?
Logo actually censors (or did last I checked) anything like nudity, etc, (when they showed the UK series Cucumber it was hacked to bits). So… no.
Ah, didn’t know that. Never had access to logo myself and I presumed it was a cable channel with HBO and Showtime-standards regarding nudity.
Yeah, it doesn’t even seem to have the FX nudity standards (ie it censors rear nudity–or did last I checked anyway). Which, not saying us gays all love nudity (though…) but seems particularly ridiculous when it’s a gay specialty channel to me and they have to censor most gay films or stuff like Queer as Folk. But, really the programming is mostly so lame that I’ve never cared enough to look into subscribing (or to the Canadian equivalent anyway–which has its own weird history since it premiered as an adult channel which showed hardcore porn after midnight–cuz y’know, again us gays can’t find porn anywhere else–but got into a lot of controversy over that and became essentially a Canadian spin off of Logo). And that’s way more than you ever wanted to know 😀
Yeah I don’t recall much from Logo’s selection that interested me too. I’d be better off giving Eastsiders a shot on Netflix instead someday.
Eastsiders… has its moments.
I’ll take that as an “okay”.
Starz hasn’t been shy about showing any man on man action with “Now Apocalypse”. So, I’m not sure why you think this would need to head to Logo.
Why wouldn’t Disneyland/World have magic? IIRC, Gaiman’s gods feed on belief. It seems like a place where children can go and meet what amounts to mythological figures (Mickey and friends, fairy tale characters, etc.) would be filled with magic.
Probably because any magic is generates would just fuel Media.
It’s explained in a bit more detail in the novel; essentially the land that Wednesday talks about drawing people toward it is what’s important. Walt just chose some random land in the Florida everglades and built a plastic kingdom, so there’s no magic there. There’s magic at places like “The World’s Largest Ball of Twine”, things like that.
American Gods is a charming book with a charming conceit, but not really well thought through all things considered. There’s hundreds of questions just like that one that could be levied at its world, and ultimately the cosmology of the story is simply a hodgepodge that doesn’t really hold up.
It isn’t made abundantly clear, but I think Gaiman’s metaphilosophy in this is that a grand, corporate indulgence isn’t “magical,” it’s capitalistic. Whereas seeing something like the largest ball of yarn in the country, put together and cared for, for reasons defying understanding is a binding place that someone felt compelled to build for.
I mean…the House on the Rock was a house for only a few years before it became a tourist attraction. Whole wings have been added to it expressly to attract more business. Apparently magical energy runs on the same logic as hipster approval.
This gets a little off in the weeds, but I’ve long thought “American Gods” had a very high chance of having been spawned by a week of heavy drinking with Terry Pratchet (“Small Gods”) and Douglas Adams (“Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul”). The unifying thread is that belief=power. Nothing more. Nothing less. In this structure, Disneyworld should be a place that both old and new gods fear – a place so utterly inundated with commercially calculated and created belief that it warps all around it, changing “gods” such as Hercules, Hades, Triton and more into cute and fluffy merch to be sold.
Forgive my poor memory but what was the god with the guns, who made bullets? Odin killed him, wasn’t that god an indulgence?
I believe the premise is that certain places have power and magic and people through history have been drawn there and then built monuments on those places. But the places don’t derive their power from the monuments.From that perspective, there is just nothing powerful or magical about Orlando.
Ley Lines, the converging power lines that connect certain spots on the earth. They are the magic and power.I was thrown for a moment by your comment about Orlando not having magic, I thought you meant Orlando Jones, duh.
As a resident of Orlando, I can confirm that there’s no magic here at all, other than the so named basketball team.
Exactly. It also plays into the whole mystique behind The House on the Rock and why this weirdo was building there in the first place. Like a “he was drawn to there but didn’t know why” scenario.
Much like the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. The recent movie with Helen Mirren(!) tried hard to capture the weirdness — I’d love to see what American Gods would make of the place.
I saw it as sort of similar situation as the Center of America (which I guess that comes later in the novel so possible spoilers if you look it up related to AG), that is a place that was designed to be a place of power and attract people, rather than a place that was naturally a place of power and people felt compelled to build there. Though I guess unlike the Center of America, Disney actually worked, but is still soulless. Though I would agree that clearly there should at least be some new god connected to the capitalism/mecca that is Disney, where the Center of America was a complete dead zone.
One would think Media would draw a large source of power just from Disney.
Because Starz can’t afford to worship at the god of Licensing Fees, that most terrible of all new gods.Surpassed in ferocity only by the gods Big Litigation Firm, and his brother, Cease and Desist.
Did you watch the episode? I’m not saying they should have visited a Disney theme park, someone wrote “Walt built a Magic Kingdom with no real magic” into the script and I find that odd since, apparently, in the AG universe, gods feed on belief.
I did. And I wasn’t trying to discredit your theory, which has genuine merit. And yes, the line was odd.But I was just making a joke . . . because this is Deadspin.
This isn’t Deadspin.
For me, it would be because Disney built his bones on other people’s work. In this universe belief seems to come first then the gods are made real. Disney’s believe is in other people’s works, and making a nickel off them. Now that he has his own original works he has horded them so you can only believe in Mickey Mouse that comes from Disney’s hands, instead of letting Mickey free and allowing others to believe in him in their own way. Disney’s lawyers won’t be having any of that.
Simple answer: Walt Disney was a harbinger for the New Gods, and Disneyland/Disney World are shrines to them — a soulless collaboration between Mr. World and previous incarnations of Media and Technology (now Technical Boy). No wonder Mr. Wednesday tries to casually dismiss Disney’s work. Yes, there’s “magic” in the Magic Kingdom, but it’s NOT lifting up the Old Gods in any way.Considering the way The Mouse has consumed Star Wars, Marvel and the Muppets, any Old God should be afraid of getting on their sh— list.
Start out whinging. How very AVClub of you.
Starz really fucked this season up by demanding it to maintain the stylistic approach. Could have grounded this season with well written scripts but nope. As much as I love Fuller’s shows, they’re so fucking arty that the stories lose consistency. It worked okay in Hannibal (unreliability was part of the narrative) but I don’t think it worked for American Gods much.
Also Media was one of only really three main bad guys we got to know and Gillian is gone. Pretty sure she won’t be beaten by New Media’s acting.
I gotta take this back, I thought the opening episode was actually fucking good. Not to mention the story is actually coherent because instead of 5 minutes of slow motion per episode and all the padding, they actually have to write for the characters properly.
Again, it’s just one book. It doesn’t need several seasons. What it should be is a perhaps 6 episodes, max 2 seasons of distilled awesomeness. Personally I think these high profile filmations from great books in series format is double edged sword. On the other hand in limited series format, it can give both the depth and the tensity of the original book. However if there’s no limited nature of the series, the whole experience waters down into indifferent crap.
Other reviews of season 2 have not been glowing, to put it mildly. It seems fairly clear it’s due to the season being in so much turmoil during production (difficulties of changing horses in midstream, time pressure & budgetary concerns, all the behind-the-scenes drama, etc.). Hopefully with Gaiman finishing his split duties with the Good Omens production (he’s said that although his title on Gods is officially Exec Producer he’s been by necessity not a very close day-to-day presence) he’ll be better able to provide some sort of clear & unifying creative vision for season 3 and onward. If only because I really like the book, and would love to see it translated fully onto the screen…
I enjoyed it, but thought they made a tactical narrative error. If the premise of power is belief – or your story being told – bringing in Hindu gods as an example of the forgotten old gods doesn’t really work. That waitress should have the endorsement of 1/5th of the world’s population and the privilege that implies.
The gods exist in local variants, so if it helps any it’d reflect marginalisation within America. (Still seems like a stronger base than most of the gods shown, though.)
I would think Kali, Destroyer of Worlds, would innately have more god cred than they are giving her.
yes. indian goddesses should also profit from the new age hype right (sanyassins and so on)? i’m under the impression that a few westerners also ‘worship’ kali and others
that would be kind of a ‘new god’ update in my opinion, since its new age, self optimizing etc., while still being ‘old god’ so she might be the OG in between? 😉
But how does that work, then? In Mr. Wednesday’s speech he explicitly says that the old gods were “brought” over to America. Is he the only Odin, or are there thousands of other Odins running around (like the Jesuses) in random villages across Scandinavia? If it’s the latter, why don’t the old gods just recruit all the different versions of themselves?This show’s internal logic doesn’t really seem to exist.
Book SPOILER, but one which won’t give much away out of context:An Icelandic Odin does make an appearance.
Huh, well I guess I stand corrected!
Indeed. The gods are all local copies brought over by immigrants. Hence the title American Gods. Also see the Coming to America segments.
As one who has read the book: There are many Odins. The Odin we have is an American Odin, the remnant of the belief people had in him when they came. There are interludes in the book entitled “Coming to America” which illustrate how some of them got here, or were made here.
Ah, gotcha! I remember the first few episodes had those flashbacks as well but it was never clear to me that it was actually creating “new” Old Gods instead of just extending their reach.
The Jesuses make sense. Jesus, as far as gods go, is the most touchy feely. He’s “all things to all men.” His global success is predicated on the fact that EVERYONE feels comfortable imprinting their own meaning on him and his message. He’s serves as a mirror of whatever society in which he is being worshipped. Basically, Jesus is the Chauncey Gardiner of god incarnate.
No, there are (or I mean, were) lots of other Odins. At the end of the book, Shadow is backpacking around Iceland and meets the local one. And the gods are limited in their influence to whatever their “homeland” is, because they’re a reflection of the people in that homeland. That’s why they’re “American” gods. They reflect the national character of their American believers as much as they reflect whatever godly traits they originated with.
It might depend on the type of worship. Kali may have a lot of followers, but they may see her story as more of a fable than a reality. She was doing better than Bilquist, active and not living as a hobo.Some Christian ideologies believe that the devil was just a representation of the bad parts of our pyche.
This gets addressed in the book, and I wish the line had made it into this episode: Kali says she is doing okay in America, and there is a version of her (another incarnation, basically) in India that does much better. She’s specifically a manifestation of the Kali that the first Indian migrants to America brought with them and has degraded as that belief has faded over the decades. I think that even modern day Indian immigrants to America who believed in Kali would be imagining a version different to the one we see here.
My sister and I were chatting yesterday about this show and book and how funny that The House on the Rock is featured in it. As kids we must have went to that place 10 times or more. My great aunt owned a cottage near Baraboo Wisconsin that we would spend weeks at in the summer. It seemed like any time we had a rainy day on they trip my great aunt would load us in the car and off to the House on the Rock. I don’t think she was an old earth deity but she did kinda come off as a witch so who knows.
But not like a British witch with no hair and square toes that wants to turn you into a mouse right? Is House on the Rock actually that cool in person?
Everyone should go to House on the Rock once. No educational value, but the OMG factor is off the charts. I mean that in a good way.
It looks huge and weird. I mean I intentionally go out of my way to places that sell tons of old shit in dilapidated warehouses that should probably be condemned. Nothing’s for sale, but this looks like one of those × 10 with a carnival inside on a rock.
The fact that a large majority of the collection is fake ads to the charm. It was fun to go look and try to decide if things like “The sacrificial dagger of the King of Siam” was real or made out of a car bumper by a guy in Madison.
I will say I went on a revisit a few year ago (I had previously been about 15 yrs ago, before I ever read the book), and it was jarring that they’ve updated the sort of entry/ticket building so it’s nice and shiny and new, with a water feature and everything, which is an interesting contrast to then transition into must-and-mildew-city (the smell in that place is amazing). Everything else remained as weird as it previously was though. And as cool as it was to see it in the show, I feel like nothing can really capture the oddity of shag-carpeted everything in the clautrophobic house, the excruciating loudness of the calliope, the eerieness of how dark the rooms really are, the infinite dead-eyed stare of all of the mannequins and figures, and the feeling that nothing has been cleaned in years. You really need to go see it in person to fully experience and understand why Gaiman was absolutely right to include it as a place of power.
I haven’t been in over 20 years but I dug the weirdness as a kid. Imagine a hoarder with a lot of money built a museum. Its all over the place but really fun. I’ve been thinking I should take my kids to the Dells this year so we may visit it then again
The OMG factor as a setting for this episode is off the charts. You simply couldn’t build sets like these, even with cgi.
It is worth a visit and it is easy to see why Gaiman selected it for his story. There is so much weirdness to unpack. Some of it really cool (like all the automatic orchestras). But here is one weird creepy detail. In the carousel room there are mannequin angels hanging all over the ceiling (you can see them in last nights episode). After the carousel room you descend into the mouth of a monster and down into a weird, massive, purgatory-like room that I can only describe as steampunk-meets-Hieronymus Bosch. This is the third-phase of the tour. At the end of this part of the tour, the last thing you will see are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and then you are directed out to the carousel room again, except now you are up above the carousel with all of the angels. It’s unsettling.
I just looked it up and in October they do tours of the place at night. I bet it amps up the creepy stuff a lot
As a Wisconsin resident, I would say it is akin to a mecca for the strange and curious! It is an intricate work of art on many-tiered levels of truths and lies on scales both grand and small. I have been there at least 7 times, and I STILL see things I didn’t catch in previous visits!If you should visit, I highly recommend going as close to opening as possible so you can meander leisurely through it. It will most likely take you at least four hours to pass through it if you move at a more brisk pace.
I am willing to take this trip with the new showrunners at American Gods. That said the energy in this first episode of the second season didn’t feel like Season 1 but I am willing to trust them and give this a try. As long as this doesn’t turn into a Sleepy Hollow horrible mess of a travesty against the characters and the spirit of the story I am going to see where this goes.
what they did to sleepy hollow was a travesty! good word. I don’t think i have ever seen a show fall apart so quickly. and the first season was so good! still bums me out. Tom Mison was so good as Ichabod Crane.
I loved the first season as well. I heard the main writers for the show left after the first season that’s why the show fell apart. I really don’t know but I’m happy Nicole Beharie got out when she did the show completely fell apart after the second season.
I think i’ve read that Neil Gaiman is having more of a hands on role in the season so maybe it’ll be better
So far the energy is different I hope they do the Coming to America segments I really like those and in the first season they really helped create the atmosphere of the show.
Same, I loved those little vignettes. They may not have been crucial to the plot, but some gave some insight to each god before they appeared (Anansi and Anubis for example). Not that Sakina Jaffrey didn’t give her all but Mama-Ji probably would have benefited with some further character shading if she had her own short.
I’m hoping for a Coming to America segment for her because honestly Hindu deities should be doing well here in America because there are alot of first generation immigrants right now. At least in many cities Queens has a very vibrant immigrant Hindu community.
It seems like a much more standard piece of tv. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the heady dreamlike structure of the first will be really missed.
I’m of a divided mind with this episode. It felt like a rough rebirth and, without Fuller and Green, a tad lacking in the visual flourishes. I know Starz wanted to keep a tight budget and cease overspending but I hope it’s not a deep slash of funds.But on the other hand, nice to see most of the main old god players gathered together as well as the divine meeting of deities in Odin’s head. I’m especially intrigued by Bilquis’ role as the wild card.
I was raised Catholic and developed a love of science fiction/fantasy. Early in my life I thought what if the reason humans can’t get along is because our gods can’t get along as well?
TV sizzurp, but still rooting for it get back in the groove, really liked the first season…
One thing I always thought about when and after reading the book, and I think about more watching the show, even MORE watching this first second season episode:If the power of faith and belief is creative and transformative, literally bringing entities (gods) to life, where are the vampires, werewolves, yeti? Especially for werewolves and yeti, there is very little variation with these legends even all over the world. For werewolves there are only a few variations on a fairly solid grounding, turn into wolf, always wolf/werewolf, or stages of wolfen, so where are the werewolves? For yeti even more so, bigfoot has kind of carved off its own ‘North America’ version, so yeti are quite clearly defined, and certainly more people believe in ‘yeti’ or ‘werewolf’ than Mexican Jesus, or Mr. Nancy. I mean these ‘monster’ legends transcend country of origin and culture, they’re nigh-universal.That said, I enjoyed ep1 of s2, I’m on board with reservations but I hope they can stick this landing from the troubles. It’s got a tremendous cast of enormous talent. Peter Stormare is a boss in everything. Orlando Jones has been and continues to be a revelation as Nancy, who knew he was such a badass actor??
were-creatures or werebeasts are very common worldwide and its the beast that is available to the region. the wolf is in europe north america, but there are werefoxes, werecheetas, werehyenas, werelions, werebears, were-anything carnivore i guess
where are the vampires, werewolves, yetiSimple answer: they’re outside the purview of this particular story. I mean, we see that leprechauns do exist, and it’s clearly not meant to signify they’re the only creatures from Irish mythology to exist, even if we don’t actually see any other Aos Sí. This can easily be true of every single piece of folklore that ever existed.
In a sequel short story to this, it’s made clear that magical beasts and monsters do exist (as they are being sacrificed over and over to keep the wealthy young and powerful).
Wow, I didn’t know this. What’s the short called? Is it the one I’ve read bits about that sort of confirms Shadow is the Thunderbird (recall this right?)?
The short story is called “The Monarch of the Glen.” And I don’t know if I should reveal who Shadow really is here, could be considered spoilers for the TV show.
I thought he was Baldur.
A vampire gets a brief mention in the text of the novel, and there’s a golem as well. Also this episode (and the book) mentions mermaids.
I watched the entire season this weekend and I like the show…but why in the fuck is Shadow Moon so stupid? Why did it take him all 8 episode to realize who Wednesday is? It is like this show is trying to be clever but fails at it.
I am infuriated by the laziness that results in the exchange between Bilquis and the Jinn being captioned as “[foreign language]” instead of the words they speak.Do you react the same way when it’s done with Spanish speaking characters?
stirring the pot again?
Isn’t that typically done for narrative reasons, though? I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head (maybe Breaking Bad?) but if you have, say, a crime drama featuring a white American lead going up against a Mexican cartel and they start speaking Spanish, presumably it’s because the protagonist isn’t supposed to understand them – and for us, the audience, to understand them would break the tension and betray possible plot twists.I dunno, it’s a weird area of film-making for sure. You can’t write for every audience.
TROLL
Damn, you are such a bore.
I think this episode was always going to present difficulties.a) with the change in show-runners, you were going to have a change in tone, even if they honored the look and feel of the first seasonb) The House on the Rock sequence is so iconic of the book. It had to be hewed closer to the book, I think, to keep book readers happy.c) The House on the Rock itself provides so much in the way of visual overload, it’s just something that had to be accepted.This episode was a physical pivot in several ways. Next week will be more telling of how the season should go.
I was really hoping to see the Unnamed god, aka the Forgettable god from the book. Too bad they left him out.
I love this show, and Yetide Badake is a hot chocolate lava cake fresh out of the oven.That is all!
Not to add much of anything new to this discussion, but having finally caught up (I appreciated that they posted on FB a 15 minute recap of season 1 that helped me and my crap memory immensely), I think I agree with most of the others here. I thought it was fine. Certainly not the disappointment I was dreading, and it was fun to return to some of these actors and characters. But I admit I also found it… slightly boring? And I’ve heard this was the best of the three episodes shown to critics. But I’ll be sticking with it, unless things really fall apart.
If critics called this episode the best of the three screened, I’m getting more worried already.
No kidding. To be fair I think that was from the general review on this site posted by a different critic.
since when we should trust the critics?
I’m hoping the show is fine after this change, but still, it’s a crying shame Fuller got booted before “The House on the Rock” chapter. They waited too long to do it.
“I do not grant wishes.” SALIM AND THE JINN, THE JINN AND SALIM! Spinoff series, anyone? Terrible idea, they are boring characters. There is no relationship, Salim is chasing after a one night stand.
I have a lower bar for my entertainment than many, but I really enjoyed this episode. I thought they did a good-to-great job trying to visualize things like Odin’s memories, the meeting of the gods – things that need to be totally made up and to seem unreal, or surreal.
The line about Easter was weak but it made me chuckle. At least it gave a point to running over the bunnies.Mr. World and Technical Boy are fun, and while I’ll certainly miss Gillian Anderson as Media, I think they can play with the character. I think it would be neat for different people to be Media, since media is all over and has many forms.Generally I also think they’ve done well updating the novel’s story for all the tech changes that have happened since it was published.
Why isn’t anyone talking about how crap the dialogue is in this episode? I liked the book, despite how clumsily sprawlingly written it is, perhaps even in part because of it, and Brian Fuller seems like a clear liability, what with mishandling budgets and having actors leave with him, however his projects always have taught, well flowing dialogue. This episode was a complete mess.
I was really impressed with the visualisation of the gods in the Backstage. I’m not sure there’s any real way to do the descriptions in the book justice, but I liked Kali’s arms fading in and out of existence, holding swords and skulls.I was a little bummed we didn’t get Mr Nancy’s “Tiger’s Balls” story, but I guess it would have taken up too much time.
Wednesday (Ian McShane)—now
revealed as Odin—tells Shadow, “over the centuries, people in other
places felt calls to places of power. They knew there was an energy
there, a focus point, a channel, a window to the imminent.”
That’d be “immanent”, I’m fairly sure, from the context.
I live not too far from The House on the Rock, and now have a bit of a compulsion to go there to put a coin in the fortune telling machine. Anyone else?
I started watching Red Dwarf again recently, and why, oh why, couldn’t Danny John-Jules have played Mr. Nancy?
I adored the mini map of their car travel from one city to another. I just thought about all the love and care that would have taken to devise. Hats off to whichever company fronted that, truly a beautiful spectre.The whole program is a visual feast and I am very much enjoying it. I love that it is so bonkers and at times things happen so suddenly and unexpectedly, that you just never know what is going to happen next!I am prepping myself for the second episode of the second season tonight!